A rose by any other name would sound as sweet…
I’m sitting in bed, typing this up at 4:00am. My ears are still ringing, and the soreness I feel in my neck and shoulders from rocking out so hard has been only slightly subdued by a searing hot shower and a good dose of ibuprofen. I have to be at work in a little over six hours, but it doesn’t matter because I just saw one of the greatest shows in all the tens (hundreds?) of shows I have seen in my lifetime. Guns N’ Roses played at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario this evening and when I woke up this morning I didn’t even have tickets.
Openers The Pretty Reckless drew the crowd in from the get go; the band is fronted by Taylor Momsen, who some of you may remember as Cindy Lou Who from Jim Carey’s incarnation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas (you read that right). Well, Cindy Lou Who is all grown up now and has a penchant for stiletto stripper boots, leather, and wailing lead vocals. The crowd was still settling in during the beginning stages of their set, but Taylor got the crowd going with the song “My Medicine” and asked those who knew the words to sing along (and attested, for those who didn’t, that they “aren’t that fucking hard to remember”). I don’t recall any other of their songs by name, but I will certainly say that they performed most excellent covers of both “Like A Stone” by Audioslave, and “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes (the latter, I’ve since read was Taylor’s first show after seeing Britney Spears as a child, and made her decide that a music career was all she wanted). I plan on getting my hands on a copy of “Light Me Up” (The Pretty Reckless’ debut album from 2010) so I can reacquaint myself with some of the songs I heard at the show.
The Pretty Reckless bowed out around 10:00 and the jokes of when Axl Rose would take the stage began. Well the joke was on me. I heard the telltale intro to “Chinese Democracy” start as I was balancing a newly purchased beer in one hand while paying for my t-shirt and poster with the other. I rushed back to my seat to witness something truly unprecedented: Guns N’ Fuckin’ Roses taking the stage not on time but almost… early. The clock had barely struck 10:30 and they were halfway through the first verse in a lineup of over thirty songs.
After “Chinese Democracy” came the standard one-two punch of “Welcome to the Jungle” and “It’s So Easy,” the first two tracks off of GNR’s debut album Appetite For Destruction. They played another Appetite classic in “Mr. Brownstone” before they slowed it down a touch with “Sorry,” a brooding track off 2008’s Chinese Democracy that features some emotional solos by Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. Things picked up again with “Shackler’s Revenge”, which some may remember from Guitar Hero III. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of that song, but whatever, because as soon as it ended everything changed.
The next song on the setlist was “Estranged” (you may remember the music video that featured Axl swimming with dolphins). This is easily my favorite GNR song, and a song they haven’t played live in – wait for it – 18 years. Hearing that song was worth the price of admission ($103) in and of itself, but then they played “Rocket Queen”, my second favorite GNR song, right afterwards. I finally used the seat I paid for at that point in the show, because I needed to sit down after the aforementioned sonic onslaught.
I’m sitting in bed, typing this up at 4:00am. My ears are still ringing, and the soreness I feel in my neck and shoulders from rocking out so hard has been only slightly subdued by a searing hot shower and a good dose of ibuprofen. I have to be at work in a little over six hours, but it doesn’t matter because I just saw one of the greatest shows in all the tens (hundreds?) of shows I have seen in my lifetime. Guns N’ Roses played at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario this evening and when I woke up this morning I didn’t even have tickets.
Openers The Pretty Reckless drew the crowd in from the get go; the band is fronted by Taylor Momsen, who some of you may remember as Cindy Lou Who from Jim Carey’s incarnation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas (you read that right). Well, Cindy Lou Who is all grown up now and has a penchant for stiletto stripper boots, leather, and wailing lead vocals. The crowd was still settling in during the beginning stages of their set, but Taylor got the crowd going with the song “My Medicine” and asked those who knew the words to sing along (and attested, for those who didn’t, that they “aren’t that fucking hard to remember”). I don’t recall any other of their songs by name, but I will certainly say that they performed most excellent covers of both “Like A Stone” by Audioslave, and “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes (the latter, I’ve since read was Taylor’s first show after seeing Britney Spears as a child, and made her decide that a music career was all she wanted). I plan on getting my hands on a copy of “Light Me Up” (The Pretty Reckless’ debut album from 2010) so I can reacquaint myself with some of the songs I heard at the show.
The Pretty Reckless bowed out around 10:00 and the jokes of when Axl Rose would take the stage began. Well the joke was on me. I heard the telltale intro to “Chinese Democracy” start as I was balancing a newly purchased beer in one hand while paying for my t-shirt and poster with the other. I rushed back to my seat to witness something truly unprecedented: Guns N’ Fuckin’ Roses taking the stage not on time but almost… early. The clock had barely struck 10:30 and they were halfway through the first verse in a lineup of over thirty songs.
After “Chinese Democracy” came the standard one-two punch of “Welcome to the Jungle” and “It’s So Easy,” the first two tracks off of GNR’s debut album Appetite For Destruction. They played another Appetite classic in “Mr. Brownstone” before they slowed it down a touch with “Sorry,” a brooding track off 2008’s Chinese Democracy that features some emotional solos by Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. Things picked up again with “Shackler’s Revenge”, which some may remember from Guitar Hero III. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of that song, but whatever, because as soon as it ended everything changed.
The next song on the setlist was “Estranged” (you may remember the music video that featured Axl swimming with dolphins). This is easily my favorite GNR song, and a song they haven’t played live in – wait for it – 18 years. Hearing that song was worth the price of admission ($103) in and of itself, but then they played “Rocket Queen”, my second favorite GNR song, right afterwards. I finally used the seat I paid for at that point in the show, because I needed to sit down after the aforementioned sonic onslaught.
At this point the band got down with some espionage. The first guitar solo of the night belonged to “Mr. Fortus, Richard Fortus”, and consisted of him soloing off of a jam based around the James Bond theme. The band continued the James Bond homage with their famous version of “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney & Wings, the song used in the opening credits of the 1973 Roger Moore movie by the same name.
The grand piano was then rolled out on stage and Axl performed “This I Love”, the token piano-ballad off of Chinese Democracy. Axl gave way to his bandmates at this point and left the stage as bassist Tommy Stinson lead the band through a cover of the Dead Boys’ “Sonic Reducer”. After Tommy, the spotlight turned to Dizzy Reed, the band’s keyboardist since the Use Your Illusion days (making him the only current member to have performed on previous Guns N’ Roses albums, besides Axl, of course). Dizzy came down to center stage and performed an instrumental version of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”. I was quite impressed with the way he blended the music and vocal harmonies together in a cohesive, and unique, cover.
Axl ran back out on stage and the band played “Street of Dreams”. This would be the last song off of Chinese Democracy until the encore.
The sound of pick scrapes and muffled strings brought us into “You Could Be Mine”, the hard driving track featured in the Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
The remainder of the show featured searing versions of some of the most popular tracks in the GNR lexicon, such as “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “November Rain,” “Don’t Cry,” and “Nightrain.” Sprinkled between these songs were more solos (highlighted by guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal’s rendition of “The Pink Panther Theme,” which went from jazzy to face-melting and back again, and Axl’s piano tribute to Elton John via a medley of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”). The crowd was also to treated to a few more covers: one expected (GNR’s version of the Bob Dylan classic “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” complete with the call-and-return chorus with the crowd near the end of the song) and some not so expected: “Riff Raff,” an AC/DC song that most casual AC/DC fans wouldn’t even recognize, and a band jam based around Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.”
It was just about 1 o’clock in the morning at this point, and the band took their leave as the crowd roared over the last notes of “Nightrain.” A few minutes passed, and Bumblefoot took the stage and started a guitar jam. He was soon joined by Richard Fortus and then the rest of the band as they segued into “Madagascar,” a Chinese Democracy track dealing with oppression and featuring multiple video clips and soundbites from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The final covers of the night came in the form of full-band instrumental jams based around Rolling Stones classics “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” These jams bookended the hard driving “Better,” a Chinese Democracy track with heavy guitars and mind-numbing solos.
The lights came on and the crowds slowly filed out of the arena to the sound of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way –” a song that truly exemplifies the way Mr. W. Axl Rose has always done things.The lights died down and everyone was treated with the acoustic classic “Patience” off of GN’R Lies before the band closed with “Paradise City” (I’m pretty sure this has been the final encore of every show since 1987). The show hit overdrive about halfway through the song and by the time the solos started there were myriad lights filing the arena as giant cannons shot a monsoon of red confetti and silver streamers. The song ended with huge fireballs and explosions and the band threw drumsticks, guitar picks, and several cases of bottled water out to the fans, took a bow at center stage, and thanked us for our patronage.
Furthermore, after seeing how well this incantation of Guns N’ Roses performed, I have decided that I don’t care if the original lineup featuring Slash, Duff, Izzy, and Steven Adler ever get back together. I don’t need to see it. I was blown away and I commend Axl for turning over what seems to be a new leaf. Starting on time, no multiple wardrobe changes (he put on a jacket at one point and had a few different hats, but he was known for having three to five outfits for concerts back in the ‘90s), and total confidence in the band he has assembled around himself. To that I say congratulations Axl; as I’ve watched Slash become a mockery of himself and put out lackluster music with Velvet Revolver I can believe that Axl is clearly the most deserving of the Guns N’ Roses moniker. Now I just have to figure out a way to take my Microeconomics final early so I can go to the Youngstown, Ohio show on Wednesday, December 7th.This concert had everything (and more) one would expect from a hard rock arena show by a band with the pedigree of Guns N’ Roses. Technically masterful guitar solos ran rampant amidst a sea of pyrotechnics throughout the show. The band brought out many, many more classics for this tour than when I saw them in early 2010. There were no delays and Axl seemed as if he was in a great, although not particularly chatty, mood throughout the entire evening. The band was tight and energetic, most of them running around the stage and up the side ramps throughout the show. Three full hours of music featuring some of the greatest hard rock anthems of all time led me to decide the following, which I do not say lightly: I have now seen Guns N’ Roses four times in the past ten years and I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to trade in the previous three times for this show tonight.
~Drew Kline
yeah, you are right, I also like the Gun N' Roses t shirt.